Speaker
Description
Previous studies in physics education have shown that perceptions of learning have a direct corre- lation on a student’s understanding of their subject, and consequently the quality of their learning outcome. Also, it follows that lecturers who conduct their teaching with the same aims as the stu- dents would have a higher overall satisfaction on average. But how well do the two perceptions actually mesh? We report on the outcome of a survey on the perceptions of teaching offered to all undergraduate students and teaching staff in the UCL Physics and Astronomy department. A sim- ilar set of multiple choice and free text questions was given to both groups. Questions included those on their own overall aims in learning/teaching, their perceptions of the aims of the other group, approaches to studying, what was found useful, and opinions on online teaching. Con- trarily to past research, the survey results show that a large proportion of students took a deep approach to learning. A direct comparison is done between the responses of staff and students. We report on this comparison and on the distribution of responses and discuss potential issues that arose, focusing on the implications for the practice of teaching physics. We also look at how the COVID-19 pandemic move to an online teaching format affected attitudes towards learning and teaching.
| Key words | perceptions, teaching aims, survey, students and staff |
|---|---|
| Region | UK/Ireland |
